Wheezing at Grimauld Place
by clutzie-cutie
Summary: A secret stash of Fred and George's products is found. Pranking  mainly Snape  commences. Why you should not leave toys with a cooped up Sirius, and bored Lupin and Tonks. NTRL T/L/S Friendship.
1. Chapter 1

**Wotcher! This is my first multi chapter one. **

**Wheezing at Grimauld Place**

**The Discovery **

Sirius chucked the bouncy ball against the wall for what must have been the hundredth time. It made a satisfactory snap against the wall.

Lupin let out a sharp breath as the ball hit the kitchen wall.

Sirius's grin widened. "Doing alright, Moony?" He leaned back in his chair to see Lupin. "Anything interesting happen today?"

"No, Fudge is just being an idiot." He said matter of factly.

Sirius grunted and continued to throw the ball against the wall above the door. They both heard the door open, a loud crash, a few choice words and the shrieking of Mrs. Black.

"SHAPE SHIFTING FREAK! BLOOD TRAITOR! POISIN ON MY FAMILY TRE-" Then she was cut off as Tonks must have pulled the curtains back across.

A whirl of pink hair rolled out of the staircase. Tonks's foot had caught on the last step and sent her somersaulting in. She skidded to a stop, and then hopped up quickly.

Sirius started clapping. "That takes an awful lot of skill." She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Hello, Nymphadora." Lupin said not looking up from his paper.

"Don't. Call. Me. Nymphadora." She hissed at Lupin. Then she turned to Sirius. "And you just shut it."

"I will when you stop tripping over everything." He retorted quickly.

Tonks turned on her heel and walked back to the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Remus asked looking up from the Daily Prophet. "Did Sirius already scare you off?"

"I'm going up to my room to take off these damn robes." She picked at the formal auror robes. "Back in a sec."

She disaperated up to her room rather than braving the stairs.

"Honestly, Moony, if either of us were going to scare her off it would be you." Sirius immediately regretted his choice of words.

"I don't doubt that." Lupin muttered.

"No, mate. It was a joke."

"Yet very true."

"You should know I think Nymphie-"

_CRASH! _

"What the bloody hell?" They heard Tonks yell.

Sirius raised an eyebrow.

"What do you think happened?" Lupin asked worriedly.

"Knowing her the bloody ceiling probably fell on her or something." Sirius shrugged before hurrying up the stair with Lupin hot on his heels.

They opened the door of Tonks's room and a puff of dust coated them in a fine coat of dust.

"Whatdaya know, the ceiling actually fell on her." Sirius grinned.

"Sirius, not funny." Yelled Tonks from the other end of the room.

"Are you okay?" Lupin asked hastily.

"Perfectly fine. Though I think I bumped my head when I fell downstairs."

Sirius stifled a laugh. "Only you would fall down stair and get hurt, but not get hurt when the ceiling collapses."

Then he and Lupin both pulled out their wands and began to clear the dust.

Once the dust was gone, they both stepped forward.

"So let's see what terrible dark thing attempted to flatten you!" Sirius said cheerily.

They all stepped forward and were met by a large letter W.

Sirius almost barked in excitement.

"What is it?" Tonks asked curiously.

"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes." Lupin said flatty. "The twins must have left them here."

"Do you know what this means?" Sirius was almost bouncing with joy.

"My room's even messier?" Tonks supplied.

"Well, yes, duh…." Then a newfound mischievous glint flashed in his eye. "But think of the possibilities…."

"Oh…Oh!" Tonks now was excited too.

Lupin knew what they were thinking. "I'm going back down stairs."

"Moony doesn't want to play?"

"Uh, no thank you."

"Why not?" Sirius whined.

"Because I'm not getting in trouble." He said simply.

"Please, Remus, for me." Tonks looked up pleadingly.

"Fine." He muttered.

Sirius's evil grin was for multiple reasons: 1. The fact that when Tonks asked Lupin he said yes and 2. Oh the things he could do to Snivilous.

**So… how was it? Please review. Anything works for me. **

**Also please excuse any spelling/ grammar errors. My only beta is spell check. If any one's interested in betaing let me know. **

**Lots of Love, clutzie-cutie (who has only walked into one wall and has not tripped today…yet)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hi again! Here's the second chapter… Hope you enjoy it!**

**Wheezing at Grimauld Place**

**Puking Patsies **

"So, Mister 'I know everything about pranking', what should we do first?" Tonks asked as she leaned back in the kitchen chair. They had gone back down to the kitchen to plot.

"Really, Tonksie? Mister 'I know everything about pranking'? Come on you can do better than that." Sirius scoffed.

"From what I heard you are exactly clueless about pranking." Lupin spoke up quietly.

Tonks cheeks blushed a light pink. "Er…."

"What did you do? Please tell me you did something to Snapey!" Sirius leaned forward eagerly.

"Um…. Well yeah. Let me see…" Tonks pondered for a second. "Oh! One time I jinxed all the doors to spray Snape with a really flowery perfume. He didn't figure it out for weeks." She grinned happily, it was very similar to the one Sirius wore when he was pranking someone. Sirius let out a barking laugh. Lupin gave a warm smile.

"Is that it?" Sirius asked.

"Uh, in my 5th year I jinxed my first name so if anyone called me it, their socks would get glued to their ears. Yeah, that was a lot of time spent with teachers in dentation."

"Nymphadora Tonks I always knew you were related to me." Sirius exclaimed.

Tonks raised an eyebrow. She flicked her wand irritably. "Don't. Call. Me. Nymphadora."

Sirius felt an uncomfortable feeling on his ears. Tonks smirked and Lupin was cracking up. "What did you do to me?" He whipped his head side to side in an attempt to see what was on his ears.

"Aw… he looks like a puppy." Tonks smiled sweetly.

"Moony…." Sirius whined.

"And he whines like one too." Lupin grinned at him.

With a rough turn of the head, a dirty sock smacked him in the face. "Merlin's beard! My socks smell bad."

"Uh, yeah." Tonks said in a 'duh' tone.

"Should we put him out of his misery? We do need him and his 'expertise'." Lupin put air quotes around 'expertise'.

Tonks shrugged. "Why not?"

"Can you do it? I'm pretty sure I've never heard of a removing socks from head spell."

"Yep." With a flick of Tonks's wand the sock fell limply from his head. "Have you learned your lesson?"

"Yes!" Tonks raised an eyebrow. "Maybe." She raised both. "No." She shrugged.

"Soooo…. Who should we prank first?" Tonks asked the two marauders.

The pair looked at each other. "Snape."

"What are we doing, might be a better question." Lupin pointed out.

"Let's go upstairs and see what the darling twins left us." Sirius jumped up.

Tonks started to push her chair back to 4 legs, but it caught on the flagstone. The chair teetered to the left and it was about to fall, when Lupin caught Tonks and the chair. He pulled her up.

Tonks mumbled what sounded like thanks. Her cheeks were bright red. She quickly covered it up with her metamoragis abilities. Lupin wondered why she was still blushing, and then he realized that his hand was still on the small of her back. He quickly retracted it as if his hand had been burned.

A smirk flashed in Sirius's eyes as he watched his best mate and baby cousin/ baby sister blush furiously.

"Are you two done?"

Both nodded. Tonks whirled on her heel and disaperated up to her room. Sirius and Lupin popped in behind her.

"Do you two mind if I change out of my stupid auror dress robes?"

"No." Both chorused.

"Okay, turn around." Tonks quickly took her dress robes off and just stayed in the bright green t-shirt and ripped black jeans she was wearing under her dress robes. "You guys can turn back around."

"Why were you wearing your auror dress ropes?" Lupin asked as he turned around.

"Oh, me and King had to give a report to Fudge."

"On what?" Sirius was now curious.

"Where you are."

"Where am I?"

"Canada."

"Why?"

"Because that's where the dart landed." Tonks said simply. "It was pretty damn hard to keep a straight face. Especially when Fudge asked why you were there and Kingsley said because you liked maple syrup. Then Fudge looked at me to verify that. He said and I quote: 'Do you remember what he liked on his pancakes?' Thank god I took that extra deceit course."

"So what did you say?" Sirius managed between bursts of laughter.

"I said that you loved a ton of maple syrup on your pancakes." Tonks broke into a fit of giggles.

"That was very dangerous." Lupin said straight-faced. The two cousins stopped laughing and stared at him. "Every time you and Kingsley lie to the minister you put yourselves at risk." Tonks's eyes narrowed. "Especially you. Because you're related to Sirius, you'll be in more risk."

"I don't need anyone telling me what to do." Tonks's hair flared a bright red.

"Hey guys, can we get back to pranking Snape?"

"Yep!" Tonks's hair turned to a bright green and she turned to Sirius.

"Okay, while you two were arguing, I thought of a plan using these." He held up a brightly colored box.

Lupin examined it closer. "Skiving Snacks?"

"There sweets that make you ill for a bit," His smile intensified. "They are just perfect for our little greasy friend. We slip one, I was think the puking pasties, in to something and sit back and watch the show."

"Sounds good, Padfoot." Lupin agreed hurriedly.

"Sure." The tips of Tonks's hair were still red with anger.

Sirius looked more closely at the box. "Oh! They can be put in drinks."

"That's perfect!" Tonks tried to walk over to Sirius, but tripped over part of the ceiling. "Whoops!" She stood up and brushed her self off. Her knee was lightly bleeding. Tonks tapped her wand on her knee and it cleaned itself and healed.

The doorbell rang loudly. "Damn." Sirius shouted. "Could you jinx the doorbell so if some one rings it their socks get glued on their ears?" He asked Tonks sarcastically.

"No." Tonks laughed. Sirius pouted. "What if I ring the door bell?"

"Then it would be uncomfortable."

The doorbell rang a few more times and the portrait of Mrs. Black awoke.

"BLOOD TRAITORS! HALF BREEDS! SHAPE SHIFTERS! FILTH! IN MY HOUSE! DISGRACE TO THE ANCIENT AND NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK!" The three tore down stairs.

Lupin opened the door, while Sirius and Tonks pulled the curtains back across. "CANKORS ON THE FAMILY TREE! I AM-"

"A horrible mother/woman/human being?" Sirius offered.

Then he turned to greet his guests. Professor McGonagall, Mad-Eye and Snape. "How many time do I need to tell you guys not to ring that bloody doorbell?"

"Apparently once more." McGonagall trilled.

"Fine. Please don't ring the damn bell."

"Getting a little touchy in the dog house." Snape muttered lowly to Sirius as he brushed by.

Sirius lunged forward towards Snape. "Sirius! No!" Tonks and Lupin grabbed his arms and pulled him back.

"Sirius, don't forget about the snacks." Tonks muttered in his ear. Sirius's face broke into a big grin/smirk.

"Everything's just fine." Snape raised an eyebrow into his greasy bangs.

Moody pushed past them and muttered something that sounded like, "Freaks."

"Moody! I heard that! I am most certainly not a freak compared to these two!" Tonks shouted after his retreating form.

"Really, Nympha- Tonks? You are not weirder than us?" Lupin gestured to Sirius and himself.

"Yeah, little Pinky?" Sirius half glowered, half smirked down at Tonks.

"Yep! You're the crazy mass murder and he's your best friend." Then Tonks ran/ tripped down the stairs.

The doorbell rang again. "FILTHY HALF-!"

Once everyone was settled in, Sirius and Snape at opposite ends of the table, Dumbledore appeared.

"Finally, can we get this show on the road?" Moody grunted.

"Yeah, I got a business offer-." 'Dung was cut off by a furious glare from Mrs. Weasley. " 'Snot important." He muttered.

"Could I offer everyone something to drink? Preferably water." Sirius asked. Everyone nodded uneasily. "Tonks, could you help me?" Tonks hopped up and they both walked over and pulled out the appropriate number of glasses.

"Okay if we put them in the right order then magic them to the people and watch the show." Sirius glanced back and counted to where Snape was.

"Okay, he is at the end on the right side, next to Mad-eye."

"Give me the candy."

While they were talking, Moody and Snape had switched spots because according to Mad-Eye, "Something is about to go down and I want to be on the fore front of it."

Once the troublesome cousins were done, Sirius raised his glass and sent the glasses to each person. They each walked back to their spots, Tonks in between Sirius and Remus and Sirius next to Charlie Weasley.

Dumbledore started by talking about how brave everyone needed to be.

Then things started to go downhill. Snape and Moody both took sips of their water.

Tonks nudged Remus and Sirius in the ribs with her elbow. Sirius winched and Remus nodded slightly. Grins grew on all their faces.

Mad-Eye started to gag. Their eyes grew wide. _Oh shit. _Tonks thought as Moody ran over to the sink.

Vomit erupted from his mouth.

The disruptive threesome stared at each other in shock. Moody was continuously vomiting.

"Alastor? Are you alright?" Dumbledore asked making his way over to the ill man.

"Poison!" He grunted. Tonks and a few others had to stifle laughs.

Dumbledore pulled out his wand and gently tapped Mad Eye on the back. He straightened up and grumbled, "Water."

Tonks jumped up and grabbed a new glass of water for him. Moody sniffed the water satisfied he gulped it down. Tonks went to grab Moody's other glass.

"Yes, Nymphadora, please bring me Alastor's cup." Dumbledore said.

"Don't. Call. Me. Nymphadora." Tonks snapped automatically. Once she realized whom she had snapped at she immediately mumbled, "Sorry Professor." Then promptly tripped and dropped the glass.

"It's of no matter. Pity, the water is gone."

"Headmaster, I think it might be better if everyone left just in case more of the water has been poisoned." Sirius said sagely.

"Yes, yes. Alright, we will have a make up meeting in two days time." Dumbledore nodded, then walked into the fire. A bright green flame engulfed him.

After that everyone but Lupin, Tonks and Sirius left.

"Weeeelllll that failed miserably." Tonks said with a big yawn.

"Uh huh." Sirius yawned too.

"I'll be going. I have to go to the ministry tomorrow." Lupin said.

"Why? It's Saturday tomorrow." Tonks asked fully awake.

"Werewolf regulation."

"Sucks mate."

"I'll stop by tomorrow. Will you be here Tonks?" Lupin asked.

"Yep. I have nothing better to do and might as well be here than my apartment." She smiled at him happily.

"Bye. Sleep tight." Lupin said as he walked out.

"Don't let the bed bugs bite." Tonks finished.

"What?" Sirius asked.

Tonks yawned again. "Oh it's this old muggle saying that goes: 'sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite.'" She yawned again. "Do you have any food?"

"I'll make peanut butter sandwiches. That's about it." Sirius stood up and started to make the sandwiches.

Tonks laid her head down in her hands. She glanced at her watch, it was 10:09. She stifled another yawn. Her eyelids drifted halfway down her eyes.

Sirius glanced over and saw her asleep. "I guessing you don't want a sandwich anymore."

He scooped her up in his arms. Tonks's hand twisted into Sirius's shirt. He carried her up to her room. When Sirius attempted to lay her down, she just gripped his shirt tighter. When he laid down with her, she snuggled into him.

Sirius stroked her hair gently.

He started to talk to, well more at her.

"You know I think Moony likes you." No response. "And I think you like him too."

A few minutes later Sirius was asleep with his arm wrapped protectively around him. And it was one of the best nights of sleep he ever had since being back from Azkaban.

**Please review! It means so much to me when I get your reviews! Anything works for me! What pranks/ characters would you guys like to see? I'm not sure if everyone is in character, especially Sirius at the end….**

**Review. It takes 30 seconds of your time and will make me smile for a whole day.**

**Love, clutzie-cutie**


	3. Chapter 3

**Wheezing at Grimauld Place**

**Comb a Chameleon**

Lupin quietly opened the front door of the Order's headquarters. He walked down to the gloomy kitchen. It was empty.

"Sirius? Nymphadora?" He asked softly in the quiet room.

Lupin made his way upstairs to Sirius's room. He poked his head in. It was also empty.

He decided to check in Nymphadora, wait no, Tonks's room. He opened the door and found his two friends.

Sirius had an arm wrapped protectively around Tonks and she was cuddled up to him.

"Sirius! Nymphadora!" He yelled.

"What?" Groaned Sirius.

"Don't call me Nymphadora." Tonks hissed. Lupin laughed.

"Time to get up."

Both moaned and groaned. Tonks was the first one up. She stood up and stretched. Then she pulled her pillow out from under Sirius and started whacking him with it.

"Ow! Ow! Oi! I'm up! I'm up!" Sirius yelled as he quickly stood up. He threw his arms up to protect himself from the vicious pillow. "Not the face!" He shrieked.

Tonks laughed and clambered up on her bed to get a better angle. Her foot caught in a sheet and she went flying off the bed, only to be caught by none other than Remus Lupin.

"You really should be more careful."

"Thanks."

Sirius was grinning manically at his two friends. Lupin set her down softly.

"So, whose up for some breakfast?" Sirius asked cheerfully.

"Me!" Tonks followed Sirius to the stairs with Lupin trailing behind her.

Tonks held tightly on to the rail so to prevent any more falls.

"So what's for breakfast?" Tonks asked.

"What's for breakfast, Moony?" Sirius asked.

"Wait why am I making breakfast?" Lupin asked as they walked into the kitchen.

"You've had my cooking, do you want it again?" All three of them shuddered.

"No." Lupin agreed.

"And Tonksie here can barely walk on a flat surface without landing on her face. It's a safety hazard."

"And I'm bloody dreadful cook. I sometimes think that some of it is toxic waste. Why do think I spend so much time at my parents?"

"Because Andy's a damn good cook." Sirius finished.

"So by default, you're cooking." Tonks smiled up at him. Lupin felt his heart melting at the sight of that grin. "So what's for breakfast?"

"Um, omelets?"

"Sounds good, mate. Better get right on it." Sirius smiled evilly at him. "We are going to go look at our next prank."

Lupin rolled his eyes. "Oh yes, because last time worked so well."

"Yep. That was actually pretty funny." Tonks giggled at the memory of last night.

"Don't blow anything up either of you two." Lupin called after their retreating forms.

Then they yelled back in unison. "Yes, mother." He rolled his eyes again. Lupin shook his head and went back to preparing breakfast.

In the room that had became the storage room for the Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

Tonks and Sirius began digging through the boxes. Occasionally one of them would pull something out then put it back in.

Suddenly Sirius let out a yell. "Got it! This is the one."

"What is it?" Tonks asked eagerly. Sirius threw the box to Tonks. "Comb-a-chameleon?"

"Yeah, it changes people's hair color."

"You mean like this." Tonks screwed up her face and her hair became black, long, and curly like her mom's.

"Showoff. But yeah. It's for us normal people." Tonks stuck her tongue out at him.

"We should probably go back downstairs. Remus is probably almost done with breakfast."

"Oh yes. We don't want to spend any unnecessary time away from Remus."

"Shut up." Tonks said sharply. The tips of her still black hair turned red. Then faded back down to black.

"Ooo, you like him." Tonks threw a sharp elbow into his ribs. "Ow!"

"Shut up." She hissed as they descended the stairs.

"You two done playing?" Lupin asked with a cheeky grin.

"Yep." Tonks said chirpily.

"We found a good toy." Sirius held out the box.

"Comb-a-chameleon?" Remus sounded doubtful.

"Uh huh. It changes people's hair color." Sirius explained.

"Do you have food?" Whined Tonks.

"Yes. Everything's set out on the table." He indicated to the omelets on the table.

"Can we eat now?" Sirius asked quickly.

"Sure."

All of them settled down.

Sirius and Tonks began eating very quickly. Sirius finished eating a little bit before Tonks.

"Ah, my cousin the bottomless pit." Tonks laughed.

"Nymphadora, I would not be pointing any fingers if I were you." Lupin pointed out.

"Don't call me Nymphadora." Tonks's hair flared red again.

"Yeah, no finger pointing." Sirius added. Tonks shot him a deadly glare. Sirius shrank back. "You know that you look scarily like your mum with the hair and the death glare."

"I think your hair looks quite nice." Lupin said quietly.

"Thanks." Tonks smiled softly at him.

"Sooooooo, how are we going to use this wonderful object?" Sirius interjected.

"Well… I think we should test it first." Tonks said, her face splitting into an evil grin.

"You wouldn't dare touch my hair!" Sirius squealed.

"Sirius, be serious. It wears off in a few hours." Remus was examining the box carefully.

"Well first of all-" He started.

"You are 'Sirius', we know." Tonks rolled her eyes at the pout forming on her cousin's face.

"Spoilsports. What if I don't like how it looks?"

"Then we can just use the reverse spell." Lupin handed him the box.

"Okay, I'll only do it if you two do it to."

"Fine." Tonks said irritably.

Lupin shrugged.

"Okay, Moony, you're going first." Sirius declared. "Tonksie, you can do it." He handed her the brush.

Tonks tapped the brush on his head. His hair changed to a lime green Mohawk.

Tonks and Sirius took one look at him and lost it.

Both were rolling on the ground, laughing their heads off.

"What is it?" He asked concerned.

"Oh my god." Tonks managed between fits of giggles.

"You should leave your hair like that." Sirius shrieked.

"What does it look like?" The pair stood up slowly, occasionally cracking up. "Tonks…?"

"Um… there's a mirror in my bag. In the front pocket." She pointed to the backpack by the door.

Lupin opened the small mirror. His jaw dropped. His hair was neon green and in a Mohawk.

"Remus, turn around." He turned around and was met by a bright flash. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes.

"What the…." Tonks had a muggle camera in her hand.

"Photo evidence."

"Okay, Padfoot, your turn." Lupin said deviously.

"Fine, fine." Sirius sat down in one of the chairs and Tonks touched the brush to his head.

His hair turned to a shocking pink to rival Tonks's normal color. And it was shaved on the sides.

"Oh. My. God." Tonks's eyes were brimming with tears.

Lupin just stared.

There was another bright flash of light.

"Let me see!" Sirius grabbed the mirror and opened it. "You know I kind of like this."

"Really?" Remus asked.

"It suits you." Tonks spluttered.

"Okay, little cuz. Time for you." Remus opened his mouth, and then closed it, choosing not to point out to Sirius that she could change her hair at will.

"Okeydokey." Sirius tapped the brush to her hair. It got really long, then the color changed to flax. "Really? This is all I get."

Sirius quickly took a picture. Then Tonks changed it to a spiky teal, which was more her speed.

"Not fair." Sirius muttered.

"Stop whining Sirius." Tonks said with a bright grin.

"So how are we going to use this?" Remus asked.

Sirius face brightened. "Okay, so I was thinking we charm this to lower when ever someone opens the door and then use Tonks's camera to take pictures of everyone. But we can't tell them and then they'll walk around with whatever hair they get."

"For once, a brilliant and well thought out plan." Lupin teased.

"All of my plans area brilliant."

"But not always well thought out." Tonks smirked at her older cousin.

"That's a matter of opinion." Sirius retorted.

"You guys, are we going to do this or not?" Remus said in a bored tone.

"Yep." Sirius stood up and started towards the stairs. Lupin and Tonks quickly followed him into the foyer.

Tonks gave the troll leg umbrella stand a wide berth. "I hate that bloody thing." She muttered. "Sirius, why can't we get rid off the damn thing?"

"Because there is some stupid curse that doesn't allow it to be moved out of the room." Sirius said with a scowl.

"How come almost everything has a permanent sticking charm?" Lupin asked.

"Because the previous owners were nutjobs." Sirius said sagely.

"And removing anything would tarnish the 'Noble and Most Ancient House of Black'." Tonks added. "Personally, I'm quite glad that I'm not fully related to them." She added as a side note.

"Oh, lucky you." Sirius scowled again.

"So, we want to put it over the door and have it drop on people's head as they walk in, right?" Lupin tried to divert an argument.

"And then have my camera take pictures!" Tonks said excitedly.

"Okay, I can do the hair brush if you do the camera, Moony?"

"Sounds good." Lupin took the camera from Tonks.

"What should I do?" Tonks asked.

"Just sit there and look cute." Sirius smirked.

Tonks her tongue out at him, but sat down on the stairs.

Both Sirius and Lupin began muttering over the camera and the brush.

The camera floated to about eye level, than vanished. The brush levitated above the door.

"Awesome. I'm gonna go out to test it." Tonks jumped up and walked out. Then she opened the door and the brush dropped down a few inches and tapped her head. Her hair changed to matted dreads, the color of a tree trunk. "Whoa! I didn't feel a thing!"

Sirius went to check the camera. "This works too!"

"Great! I think Kingsley said he was dropping some stuff off around 10." Tonks glanced at her watch. "Oh I forgot mine's broken."

Lupin glanced at his watch. "It's 9:45."

"Why don't we go up to the study, then we can see when people come without being to suspicious." Sirius suggested.

Both nodded and followed him upstairs to the study. Sirius threw himself on top of the couch. Lupin quickly found the small bookcase. Tonks wandered over to the baby grand.

Her fingers traced softly over the white keys. Tonks sat down at the bench and her hands automatically began Moonlight Sonata.

Lupin and Sirius looked up at her. The song was beautiful.

When she finished both clapped. "Sorry, habit." She muttered.

"Since when did Nymphie play piano?" Sirius asked.

"Um, the summer after you… err…." She searched for the right words. "When you left. Mum had me start learning 'cause I was and I quote: 'being a problem child'. Turns out I actually really enjoy it."

"Well you're pretty good." Sirius said with a big smirk.

"Like you're any better." Tonks scoffed.

"I bet I-"

"Could one of you do the reverse spell?"

"Yeah." Tonks ran over to Lupin and pulled out her wand. "Hair coloro reverso."

"Oh! Do me too!" Tonks did the same process for her cousin.

"Kingsley's here."

"Really?" Tonks and Sirius ran to stand next to Lupin by the window.

"Sirius, go get the door." Lupin gestured towards the front of the house.

Everyone ran to the banister as they heard Kingsley open the door himself. He didn't notice the small brush tapping on his head. His entire very small amount of hair turned bleach blonde.

"Hello? Is anyone home?" His deep voice rang out.

"Wotcher Kingsley! We're up here." Tonks yelled down as she ran down the stairs. Towards the bottom she skipped a step and went crashing in to Kingsley.

"Hello Tonks." He said as he helped her up. "By we who do you mean?"

"Sirius and Lupin."

The other two made their way down a little bit more gracefully.

"Hey Kingsley!" Sirius grinned.

"Sirius, Remus." Kingsley nodded at both. "I just need to drop off a few reports and then I've got to go back to the ministry."

"Why?" Tonks asked.

"I have to finish some paperwork on some stupid case of Fudge's. And I'm on duty today." He shrugged, and then walked out.

As soon as the door snapped shut behind him, Sirius and Tonks burst into laughter. Lupin smiled and let out a small laugh.

"Why…"

"Aren't…"

"You…"

"Laughing?" Sirius and Tonks managed between fits of laughter.

"Because it really wasn't that funny."

"Err…. Yeah it was." Sirius said straightening up. "King is going to be walking around all day with blonde hair." Lupin grinned tiredly.

"Yeah, Kingsley had blonde hair." Tonks had also straightened up. "Whatever, let's see if the camera worked." She waved her wand and the camera flew to her hand. She pressed a few buttons and then showed them the camera. "It worked!"

"Blackmail material!" Sirius jumped up in the air.

"Oh, think of whose else might come by!" Lupin said the smile growing on his face.

Tonks and Sirius looked at each other and said simultaneously. "Snape."

"What about Minnie or Molly?" Sirius hopped up and down.

"But neither of them will be coming by." Lupin pointed out.

"Spoilsport." Tonks cough-said.

"Yeah." Sirius cough-said back.

"I can hear everything you're saying." Lupin cough-added.

Tonks and Sirius's cheeks flushed a slight pink.

There was a shuffling of feet from a door to their right. A small house elf shuffled in.

"Kreacher!" Sirius yelled.

"Yes, master?" He said innocently. Then he turned his head to the side. "Mistress's son consorting with half breeds and blood traitors. What would Mistress say if she saw a werewolf in her house and the plague on her family tree…."

"Did he just call me a plague?" Tonks whispered to Lupin with a smirk.

"I believe so." Lupin muttered.

"Filth of her blood-"

"Kreacher shut up and go clean… oh I don't care, just go clean somewhere." Sirius yelled and the house elf turned away.

He walked up the stairs and they could catch a few words. "Filth… half breeds… freaks…."

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Sorry 'bout that."

"Eh, I thought it was quite amusing." Tonks giggled.

"I quite agree." Lupin chimed in.

"Unbelievable." Sirius muttered.

The door opened and there was a heavy thunk. All three whipped around. A grizzled man stood framed in the door.

"Maddy!" Tonks yelled. Her eye briefly widened as Moody's hair changed from it's gray to a purple and black stripe.

"Don't call me that, Nymphadora." Gruffly, he said.

"I won't if you don't call me Nymphadora!" Tonks sang. There was a short staring match between the two.

"Hey!" Sirius said. There was no response. "Hello?"

"Death Eaters!" Lupin yelled. Tonks and Mad-eye pulled out their wands and spun back to back.

"Where?" Asked Mad-eye.

"No where." Tonks mock glared at Lupin.

Sirius was rolling on the floor, clutching at his sides. "Oh, Moony that was brilliant!" Tonks waved her wand and muttered something under her breath.

Sirius started to pull himself up, but was unable to stand. "What's going on?" He said worriedly. "Moony! Help!"

"Oh, no. Moony, don't help." Tonks raised her wand again. "Titillando!"

Dropping to the floor, Lupin burst into laughter. Purple hands wrapped around him and tickled him viciously.

"Nicely done, Tonks." Moody nodded approvingly at Tonks. "Did Kingsley drop off some reports?"

"Yes." Tonks walked over to grab the stacks of paper that Kingsley had left. " 'Ere you go, Mad-Eye."

"Excellent." Mad-Eye glanced at them quickly. "I'll be off."

Mad-Eye opened the door and yelled as he left. "Constant vigilance!"

The door shut loudly behind him. Tonks shook her head at her former mentor. Then she turned to the two men lying on the floor. "Bad idea scaring aurors like that. You're lucky Mad-Eye didn't jinx you."

Then she waltzed upstairs and gave them one more pitying look before slipping into her room. Tonks stretched out on her bed and grabbed the book she had been reading the other day.

Around 3, after she had released the two boys from her jinxes, an owl began tapping on her window. Tonks hopped up and opened the window. She recognized the brown and white spotted owl as Kingsley.

"Guys!" Tonks yelled as she grabbed the letter from the owl. "Sirius! Get your butt in here!" Sirius and Lupin came running in.

"What?" Asked Sirius.

"I just got this from Kingsley." She brandished the envelope in Sirius face.

Lupin grabbed it. And read, "You are all dead. Kingsley."

**Hello again! I'm sorry this is late. But I've been very busy. And I made it extra long! It's 11 pages! I will be updating this at least every Sunday! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review! I spent a lot of time on this chapter. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Wheezing at Grimauld Place**

**Chapter 4 **

"FILTHY MUDBLOODS! DISGRACE UPON MY FAMILY TREE!" The demented portrait screeched.

"Ah, I had forgotten about my dear aunt."

"That's nice that you could forget about her." Sirius said dryly as he burst through the door leading down to the kitchen. Sirius's face broke into a massive grin as he saw who it was. "Andy?" He almost sounded like a lost puppy. "Andromeda?" He asked again, his grin, if possible, growing even wider.

"Sirius Black?" Andromeda's eyes were wide with shock. "What?"

"Welcome to the Headquarters of the Order."

"I thought you went crazy like the rest."

"Nah wouldn't leave you by yourself." Then both cousins launched themselves at each other, hugging fiercely.

Tonks rolled her eyes at the pair as she set her pack down next to the door. "I'm glad to see you too Sirius. Honestly, you'd think I'm invisible." She muttered.

"I'm glad to see you," A calming voice said to her right. "And you're definitely not invisible."

"Wotcher Remus." In Lupin's opinion, Tonks' smile seemed to grow wider as she took him in. "Any one else here?"

Lupin's face fell slightly as he misread her question, Tonks noticed this and quickly amended her statement, "Not that I'm not glad to see you. I'm just curious you know with my mum being here and all."

"Oh, Molly's here, I think that Arthur, Bill, er maybe Hestia, some others and 'Dung was. But I'm not sure where he is. And quite honestly I couldn't care less." Tonks and Lupin shared a laugh at the thought of their fellow drunken order member.

"So are you staying for dinner?"

"Er, no. It's, you know, uh, I have stuff to do." His eyes shifted guiltily away from Tonks.

"Remus? Remus Lupin?" Andromeda had released Sirius and was making her way over to Lupin.

"Hey Andy." She pulled him into a bone crushing hug. "It's good to see you again." When she pulled away, Lupin smiled softly and said, "Sorry, but I need to get going." Lupin ducked away and slipped out the door unceremoniously.

"Andy, Molly Weasley is down in the kitchen, cooking." Sirius said pointedly.

"And what are you two going to be doing?" Andromeda raised her eyebrows at her daughter and cousin.

"Nothing, mum. Why do you always assume I'm up to something?"

"Because you often are."

"I feel like I should take offense to that." Sirius interrupted. "We really must get going." He grabbed Tonks' elbow and began pulling her up the stairs. "Big scary something. Need a big scary Auror to take care of it." Sirius was watching his footing very carefully, because one misstep on the stairs with Tonks would mean bad things for him. "Yep, definitely need an Auror. Who knows what it is?" And with that they ducked into a room.

The room in question was covered in dust and cracked wood. A pile of bright orange boxes lay in the center.

"Big scary Auror?" Tonks asked, once the door was closed behind them.

"Uh huh." Sirius said, not completely aware of the fact that Tonks was glaring at the back of his head, as he dug through the pile of vividly colored boxes. "Here we go!" Sirius triumphantly pulled out a box. "Sneed's Smells." There was an artfully placed cartoon of a nose surrounded by billowing clouds of gases.

"Okay then…." Tonks stared at the box. "How do we use it?"

"I'm thinking that we put it in the vents and sit back and enjoy."

"I'm still confused. Why does this have anything to do with pranking?" Tonks asked, obviously unconvinced.

"Sneed's Smells creates a multitude of smells that range from sweet to sour to everything in between." Sirius read off the box.

"Okay." Tonks nodded eagerly. "Where are the vents? Oh and what are we going to do? It might backfire on us."

"Okay, we'll just use _Impervious._" Sirius shrugged. "Now to the attic."

Sirius led the way through the winding staircases. They were met by no disturbances except for Kreature on the 4th floor.

"My mistress's traitor murderer son. And the color changing freak. Is it true she is the daughter of mistress's niece?" Kreature shuffled away but some of his words carried, words like, "Bella. Mudbloods and blood traitors."

"I think he has selective memory. Sometimes he talks about me as some sort of disease and sometimes he doesn't even know who I am. Maybe he's finally lost it."

"Finally!" Sirius leaped ridiculously in the air, pumping his arms. Tonks rolled her eyes, but couldn't hold back her smirk.

"So where's Remus?" Tonks asked.

"Go look out a window." Tonks glanced out the window into the gray abyss of clouds. She turned back to him, obviously confused. "It's the full moon."

"Oh."

"Mmhhhmm. Speaking of Moony…."

"What?" She snapped defensively.

"Nothing, Nymphadora." Sirius smirked happily. "Welcome to the attic." Sirius led her up a steep flight of stairs. Buckbeak squawked happily at the sight of them. "Down, Beaky."

"Don't call me that and where's the vent?"

"Over here." Sirius walked over to a large metal grate. With a wave of his wand the grate blew off. He opened the box with a jerk and pulled out a nasty looking thing wrapped in netting.

"The spell to activate it is…. Incipit odor."

Sirius muttered the spell and the package began to sizzle. "We should probably get out of here." Sirius said. Tonks nodded hurriedly in agreement. Tonks followed Sirius out of the attic, but stepped awkwardly on an old bone left by Buckbeak. She tumbled forward and plowed into Sirius. "Oi! Tonks!" He shouted as they fell downward.

"'M sorry." Tonks muttered as she stood up, brushing the dust from her robes.

"Why has no one come up with some sort of spell to sure clumsiness?" He asked as he grabbed a table adorned with serpents and hoisted himself up.

"Don't ask me. I've looked up everything." Tonks said with a sigh. The two cousins hightailed down the stairs in an attempt to rid themselves of any evidence.

They slipped into the drawing room, which was empty of any order members. A sickly sweet smell fell upon their noses, both gagged suddenly. "The impervious charm." Tonks choked out.

Sirius nodded and muttered, "Impervious." He aimed his wand at both of their noses. Both heaved out a breath as they felt the normal air reach their noses. "Thank god." Sirius muttered.

"Er… we better find something to do. You know with my mum and Molly…." Tonks trailed off. She had a fair few scrapes with a furious Andromeda Tonks and barely lived to tell the many tales. Sirius apparently had quite a few as well as his eyes widened and he nodded quickly.

"Right. Books." Sirius shuffled over to the many books. "Anti-muggle, pro-pure blood, family history, poisons, oh that nasty! Great pure bloods through the ages?" Sirius shook his head in disgust. "This is sad."

"Do you even read?" Tonks asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes…Erm, sometimes… on very special occasions." Sirius ran his pointer over the dusty titles. "Oh here's one you would like, Lycanthropy, curse or cure?" He shot Tonks a wry look, which she met with a hastily concealed blush and eye roll. "Don't think you can hide from Uncle Sirius!" He waggled his eyes brows with a grin.

"Has anyone ever told you you're a freak?" Tonks asked calmly.

"Coming from a fellow freak, no." Sirius grinned again.

"Wonder if anyone's noticed?" Tonks said, quickly changing the subject.

Sirius quickly caught on, "Fine, I'll drop it. But I feel like we should get out of here. Don't you think it's a bit suspicious that we're in the library?" He waved his hand between them.

"Hey! I'm better then you!" Tonks protested.

"Is that what you tell our dear old book worm, Moony?" Sirius smirked. He noticed a slight reddening of the tips of Tonks' pink hair.

"Bug off, Sirius." She hissed then stormed out of the drawing room. Sirius followed after her like a lost puppy. Tonks slipped into her room, only to trip over an invisible wire that was known only to her feet.

"Smooth." Sirius chuckled behind him. He offered a hand, which Tonks took gratefully. "Do you have cards?" Tonks nodded and pulled out a deck from the dresser. She unwrapped the cards from the pony holder that was holding them together. "Go fish?"

5 rounds of Go Fish later, Tonks and Sirius heard a horrid retching cough from the floor above. They grinned wildly.

"Maybe we should go out for a bit…" Sirius suggested as he laid down his cards.

"Yes. That seems like a good idea." Tonks agreed. "I'll meet you down stairs. I'll just apparate." Sirius nodded with a smirk. Tonks plus stairs is never a good thing, much less safe to the general public. Sirius bounded down the stairs taking them two at a time. He heard the soft crack of apparition. And Tonks' colorful language as she landed on the damn troll leg.

"Language, Tonksie." Sirius scolded as he came level with her.

"Tread lightly. I'm the one rescuing you." Tonks responded with an evil smirk. "I could easily leave you to Molly. And my mother." She added, Sirius's face paled. "That's what I thought. I'll grab the leash."

Sirius screwed up his face as he turned into the massive black dog.

"Mum, Mrs. Weasley! I'm taking Sirius for a walk." He heard Tonks yell down the corridor to the kitchen. Tonks hurried back to Sirius and quickly clipped the leash to him.

They were almost out the door when two unearthly shrieks stopped them. There was the heavily muffled pound of feet and two shouts, "NYMPHADORA ANDROMEDA TONKS!" Came from Andromeda, and "SIRIUS ORION BLACK!" Came from Molly Weasley.

The pair turned and stared innocently at the two fuming women.

"Sirius Black you turn back into a human!" Andromeda yelled as Sirius tried to shrink behind Tonks. Sirius lowered his head to the floor and slowly began to grow upward and more human like. He gave a mild smile. Tonks had assumed an empty expression and her hair had turned to a platinum blonde color.

Andromeda Tonks had had to deal with the original troublemaker, Sirius and his protégée, Tonks who learned an awful lot in the short time they truly knew each other, for most her life. So their pathetic masks of innocence were easily pushed aside.

Molly Weasley was no stranger when it came to trouble. Raising a household of 6 boys made it easy for her to see through Tonks and Sirius's act.

"Mum. Molly." Tonks nodded to both.

"Andy…Molly." Sirius smiled winningly. Both narrowed their eyes at him.

"Down in the kitchen. Now." Andromeda hissed. Sirius and Tonks followed her back down the long, steep corridor to the kitchen or as it was going to be used, an interrogation room. Molly trailed behind them to prevent any escape.

"Why do I feel almost as if we're being led to Azkaban?" Tonks muttered lowly to Sirius.

"'Cause this is what it feels like."

"I much prefer to do the leading as apposed to the led."

"You two no talking." Andromeda said, unsmiling. Both fought back gulps of fear.

They entered into the kitchen and shock of all shocks, Tonks fell and landed on her face. Sirius hauled her up. "Stiff upper lip?" He offered.

"Tonks. Sirius. Sit down." Molly commanded.

Tonks and Sirius fell back on to the wooden bench.

"So…" Sirius said. "Are we having dinner or something?"

Two sharp glares and an elbow to the ribs from Tonks met him.

"Sirius shut up." Tonks muttered.

"Why the hell does the house smell like this?" Andromeda waved a hand around.

"Are you alright, Andy? I don't smell anything." Sirius said seriously.

"Sirius Black, you are in so much trouble right now, words can't even describe it." Andromeda said coolly. Sirius cringed slightly under her gaze. It was the gaze of Bellatrix Lestrange without the whole 'crazy, wild, deranged death eater' part. Either way it was terrifying. "Nymphadora?" She turned to her daughter.

Tonks, unlike her cousin, did not flinch. "Yes, mum?"

"What did you two do?"

"We…er… played Go Fish." Tonks said bravely.

"Did you deal with the big scary thing Sirius was talking about?" Tonks' eyes widened momentarily.

"Yep, and Nymphie was a huge help." Sirius interjected with a charming smile. It had little to no affect on the two women.

"And what exactly were you dealing with?" Molly asked.

"Er… um… Tonks is going to tell you." Sirius mumbled.

"Nymphadora?" Andromeda asked.

"Hmm… uh… we were dealing with the murderous curtains. You know the ones that try to strangle you?" Tonks offered feebly.

"The ones that Mad-Eye dealt with last week?" Molly asked.

"Yep. Those." Tonks began glancing around for an escape.

"So what were you two really doing?" Andromeda laid her hands on her hips and glared at the two in front of her. "And don't say playing go fish."

This is when Sirius made a grave mistake. "We were reading in the library."

"You two? In a library? With books?" The shock was evident in her tone. And a satisfaction of catching them. "Sirius you have close to a phobia of books and Nymphadora, you only spent your 7th year in the library so you could become an auror." Both had guilty expressions playing across their faces. "So what were you two really doing?"

"Sirius made me do it." Tonks mumbled.

"What was that?" Andromeda pressed.

"It was Sirius's idea." Tonks pointed at him.

"Thanks for selling me out!" Sirius growled.

"What did you do Sirius?" Molly asked, exasperated.

"Sneed's Smells. In the vents." He muttered. "It makes a bunch of weird smells."

"What should their punishment be?" Molly asked.

"I don't know. Cleaning maybe."

"What about locking them in the library?" Hestia Jones asked as she walked in, her voice muffled by the cloak she held over her nose.

Tonks and Sirius's eyes widened. "Hestia!" Sirius cried out. "No! Please no!" Tonks stared at Hestia in amazement.

"Sirius, I think we made a bad choice with this prank." Tonks muttered.

"Hestia, I think that is a perfect punishment." Andromeda said, glaring at the two troublemakers.

10 minutes later, Tonks and Sirius found themselves locked in the library and unable to get out.

"Don't they teach you how to get out of this stuff at Auror training?" Sirius asked irritably. "Maybe Mad-Eye."

"Complain to our stupid relatives. Normally yes. But there some sort curse on the lock so that it can only be unlocked from the outside."

"Damn them." Sirius growled. "So what do we do now?" He ran his hands through his shaggy black hair. "This is boring." Sirius paced back and forth. Tonks collapsed in a chair.

"When does Lupin get back?" Tonks asked.

"A day or so. Why? Do you miss him?" Sirius's eyebrows moved up and down his forehead. Tonks rolled her eyes dramatically.

"No… well yes. But that's beside the point. He's probably the only one who will let us out."

Sirius's mouth formed an o and his eyes widened. He ran over to the door and began pounding on it. "'Dromeda! Molly! Hestia!" He shouted. Then, if it were possible, his eyes widened even more. "What are we going to do for food?"

**Don't worry, I'm sure they'll figure it out. Hehe. My homework's calling. A huge thank you to my beta for finishing the chapter. For those of you who don't know why I was gone for so long here's my reason, I got a concussion and a fractured shoulder playing soccer. And I forgot. My bad. I hope you lot like the cousin's prank. I think that Gred and Forge should give them their money back or at least their ceiling as that prank failed,epically. **

**As always review. It makes me smile. **

**clutzie-cutie.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Wheezing at Grimauld Place**

**Chapter 5**

_Previously…_

_"'Dromeda! Molly! Hestia!" He shouted. Then, if it were possible, his eyes widened even more. "What are we going to do for food?_

Tonks shrugged. Sirius stared at her, expecting her to do something. "What? You want me to do something? 'm not good at householdy spells."

Sirius frantically pulled out his wand and began waving it around like a mad man, "Accio food! Accio… firewhiskey!" He ran around the dusty room, a crazed look plastered on his face.

"Sirius!" Tonks yelled. "Stop acting like the mad man everyone thinks you are!" She swung a hand at Sirius as he paced towards her.

"Ow!" He whimpered. "What was that for?"

"I dunno." She shrugged. Her eyes raked across the old room, a moth-eaten sofa lay in one corner, and a few shelves of faded titles, the infamous Black Family Tree faced them on the opposite wall. "This is boring."

"There's nothing to do," Sirius whined. Irritated, he threw himself onto a lumpy chair that reeked of dust. "This room smells like oooollllldddd people."

Tonks shot him a withering glare as she examined the titles of the books. _The Muggle Atrocity, How to Defend From Muggles, Mudbloods and Their Magical Thievery, Half Bloods: Friend or Foe?_; the list went on and on. Most of the books were either about how dreadful Muggles were, or about how wonderful Purebloods were. Tonks shook her head at the contents of the library.

"Find anything interesting?" Sirius moaned from his spot on the chair, one leg hanging haphazardly off an arm.

"Mmhmm," Tonks looked back at her older cousin, "I bet you'll like this one. _Blood Traitors: A History of Disgrace_."

"Hey! You can't laugh at me being a traitor!" Sirius shot up in the chair, not realizing her sarcasm. "Your mum's worse than me! She was a Slytherin." The man whispered the last sentence like it was a curse word.

Tonks' eyebrows shot up towards her currently blonde hair in amusement. "I know. So the King of Sarcasm can't take a bit of his own medicine?"

"What? Yes, I can! I so can… Oh…." Sirius slumped back to his former position, only now sulking like a child who was denied his favorite toy. If there was one thing Sirius Black hated (other than his whack job family, and Deatheaters, and Lord Moldypants, and Snivelus, of course,) it was being bored. And he was bored right out of his mind.

Tonks was looking at her sulking cousin, a wry grin on her lips. Honestly, he was 13 years older then her, but he acted like he was 13 years younger.

Sirius was currently puffing bursts of air up into his floppy hair and letting it settle back down.

Tonks pulled out her wand and settled on the ancient couch. It was going to be a long night.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O

The three women downstairs listened as Sirius yelled for them. And all three had extremely please expressions.

"Maybe that will deter them from any more shenanigans. Did you know that they spent an afternoon a few days ago jinxing people's hair?" Molly said, shaking her head. Hestia scowled slightly, remembering her awful experience in a Muggle coffee shop with rainbow colored hair. "I swear they are worse then the twins."

"Well, it is Sirius and Remus," Andromeda started, "they were part of the original Marauders. They caused such hell." She let out a soft laugh as she reflected on old times.

"Hmm, well you didn't have to deal with them. I was in their year and it was terrible. Everyone was terrified of getting pranked. Luckily, I was a good friend of Lily Evans, so we didn't get the brunt of it. She used to yell at James for hours though." Hestia smiled sadly.

There was a moment as the three reflected silently on lost friends and family.

"I wonder how they're doing," mused Hestia, breaking the silence.

"I'm sure Sirius is going out of his mind with boredom. How he survived the monotony of Azkaban has always astonished me. He's just very… what's the word?" Andromeda trailed off.

"Irritating? Frustrating? Impatient? Fidgety?" Hestia volunteered drily. Molly moved to the kitchen when the dishes had all stacked themselves on a dry towel and was now putting them all in their respective cabinets.

"Yes, fidgety. Molly, do you need any help?" The other two women were quickly at her side. Hestia grabbed a handful of silverware and made for the drawer, sorting the knifes, forks and spoons. Andromeda picked a few bowls.

"Oh, thank you," the red head said. Then she opened her mouth to instruct Andromeda where the dishes went, but she remembered that the woman would've known where everything was from her childhood. A blush flushed her cheeks, but disappeared as fast as it had appeared.

Andromeda happened to glance at a pile of a shattered plate. "Molly, why is this here?"

Molly glanced at it, "Oh, someone broke it late last night and no one got around to fixing it," she explained quickly. She didn't exactly want to say who it was, but she was fairly certain Andromeda could figure it out.

"Was it Nymphadora?" She asked with a sigh.

It took Molly a moment to register the girl's first name before she nodded and said, "Yes, I'm not quite sure what happened."

In no time they had all of the dishes put away in their proper places. Molly retrieved a bottle of wine and a tray of cheese and crackers from the pantry. She would never admit it, but she liked being at Grimauld place. It almost reminded her of her childhood home, just darker, Slytherin-ish, and well more Black like.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O

Sirius was still moaning and groaning from his spot on the chair. Tonks had been absent-mindedly playing with her wand. A friend from work had shown her a version of the lumos spell that left wispy traces of light as you moved your wand through the air. It was a party trick, but then again, so was she, Tonks thought mockingly.

"What did you do in Azkaban? You should be used to the boredom." Tonks asked, the idea skipping over her brain and heading straight for her mouth. She almost winced when she heard it herself.

Sirius rolled over and fixed her with a dark stare.

"You know what, sorry, my bad. That was dumb of me to ask." She hurriedly tried to save face.

"No, honestly, I listened to the other inmates. My cell was conveniently located amongst lots of crazies. It was actually pretty interesting."

"I would love to have a bug inside some of those cells." Sirius tilted his head questioningly. Tonks quickly clarified, forgetting he didn't know anything about Muggles, "Bugs are these little listening devices you put in rooms. You can hear everything that happens in the room. Muggle cops use them a lot. Sort of like the extendable ears, but more inconspicuous." Sirius nodded, realization dawning.

He opened his mouth to respond, but a low grumbling emanating from his abdomen drowned it out. "I'm huuunnngggrrrrryyyyyy," he whined, sounding the part of a four year old.

"They aren't going to let us starve. Mum wouldn't let us," But Tonks didn't sound so sure. "And Hestia wouldn't. Well, she'll have to leave for guard duty soon. Molly, I'm not sure." As Tonks listed off the people, she was not seeing a quick way out.

"Yeah, I would not put a lot of money on Molly or 'Dromeda letting us out," Sirius was now, some how, hanging upside down from the chair, his head lolling off the cushion. "Once, when I was a little, ickle kid, I accidently split hot chocolate in your mum's bed and she locked me in the closet for like four hours. That's better than what Bella did. She locked me in the closet, and hung me upside down. All I did was step on her dress by mistake." Sirius seemed to have totally mastered the puppy dog look. Of course, he was a dog in animagus form, so it must've come naturally.

"Great. We're gonna be here 'til we're old and ancient." Tonks huffed.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O

Hestia rapidly said her good byes after registering the fact that it was 10 minutes until she was due for duty, and Mad Eye was on duty right now. He would probably hex her socks off if she was even thirty seconds late.

Molly bustled around the kitchen, quite in her element, making dinner. Andromeda offered to help, and was directed to a cutting board with a few carrots and a knife lying on it.

Both women were chopping up various vegetables and Molly had a chicken breast sizzling in a pan.

"What are we making?" Andromeda inquired as she diced an onion, fighting the tears that accompanied it.

"Chicken pot pie. It's one of Arthur's favorites, but it's rather hard to make for so many people." Molly didn't even look up from the piecrust she was rolling out.

The clock ticked on as the two worked. They had been at it for almost two hours when the door opened. There was a slight clatter and soon screams echoed through the old house.

They shared a sigh before running up to see what the problem was.

"FILTHY MUDBLOODS! DISEASE TO MY FAMILY NAME!" Walburga Black screeched. Her dark beady eyes swiveled to Andromeda and narrowed venomously. "YOU! BLOOD TRAITOR! MUDBLOOD LOVER! YOU BETRAYED THE MOST NOBLE AND ANCIENT HOUSE OF BLACK!" She inhaled deeply and opened her mouth for a third round, but they managed to get the curtain over the horrid woman in time.

Andromeda was staring at the portrait of her aunt, the proud Black look of distaste adorning her features. The phrases the painting had thrown at her were not all that different from the ones she had received when she delivered the news or the numerous howlers she got.

She turned to look at the newcomers who had incurred the painting's wrath, and found her husband and Arthur Weasley.

"You two are early," Molly was already hurrying to gather their coats and hats, ever the hostess.

"Well, I finished my reports early," Arthur explained to his wife.

"And I wasn't doing anything either, so we figured we'd come a little early, if that's alright with you," Ted added. His wife rolled her eyes at him.

"Please, come down you two." Molly beckoned and the others followed. Molly poured two more glasses of wine for the two men and the two couples sat at the table.

"So, 'Dromeda, what relative was that?" Ted asked nonchalantly, taking a quick sip of his wine.

"My Aunt Walburga. She make my mum look like a declawed kitten," the brunette scoffed. "She was a real piece of work."

"Oh, was she the one who sent a daily howler?" Ted recalled their days in the cramped flat with one small corner dedicated to the howlers.

"Yes,"

Molly, sensing this was dangerous territory, steered the conversation away.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O

Sirius, still draped haphazardly, jerked up from his dreary state of sleep. There was an echo of his mother's voice from her portrait.

Tonks looked up too at the screams. They could hear the occasional, "MUDBLOOD! TRAITOR!" The usual, then the words, "YOU BETRAYED THE MOST NOBLE AND ANCIENT HOUSE OF BLACK!" floated up.

"2 galleons the cow was yelling at my mum." Tonks said lazily.

"Nah, she always says stuff like that," Sirius replied, equally bored.

Tonks perked up a bit as she mulled over, "Sirius! This means there are more people, maybe they'll come and rescue us."

All she got in response was a, "Mhhgggmmffhhh," as Sirius fell off the chair.

O-o-O-o-O-o-O

The older couples chatted cheerfully. They hadn't seen each other for a while and it was refreshing to talk to new people.

Molly would occasionally bounce up and check on her chicken potpies.

About 45 minutes after the men had arrived, she declared them finished and pulled them out of the oven. Arthur and Ted stared at them hungrily as Andromeda set 6 places.

"Molly, dear, why are there two extras?" Arthur enquired.

The two women shared an amused grin before Andromeda sighed, "Ted, you need to go retrieve your daughter. She has been locked in the library all day." She said it like there was no explanation necessary.

And Ted only said, "Oh so she's done something bad and she's _my_ daughter?" Andromeda nodded and made a slight shooing motion.

Ted trudged up the stairs. As he passed the third floor he realized he had no clue where the library was. He had never been inside this house. An ancient looking house elf stood in the corner, muttering to himself. Ted strolled over to the creature and asked in a booming voice, "Hi, can you tell me where the library is?"

"Who is this, filthy mudblood? Oh, the dirt in my mistresses house. She would be so ashamed, so ashamed." Ted stared blankly at the elf, who did not seem to show any sign of seeing Ted.

"My name's Ted Tonks. I'm Nymphadora Tonks' dad. Do you know her?"

The elf perked up at this, "Oh, the color changing freak. The blood traitor's daughter. The sister of Miss Bella and Miss Cissy. Oh how it broke my mistress' heart when her son and her niece left. One for a mudblood, and her son, such a bad, bad boy." Ted had absolutely no clue now what the elf was talking about, and just continued and his way up. He had to come across it eventually.

"Dora!" He called, hoping for some sort of response. "Dora!" Ted walked up to the next floor and cried out again, "Dora! Nymphadora!"

"Dad?" A voice yelled from the room directly to his left.

Ted yanked open the door and found a dimly lit room with books shelves on every wall.

"You found us! And don't call me Nymphadora!" His daughter ran at him in a bright pink blur. But she didn't make it all the way. The rug had a slight bump in it and that was enough to send her flying. Luckily, Ted had a lot of practice with catching his clumsy daughter. He managed to keep her on her feet, which in their books, was a success. "We thought they were going to leave us here to starve!"

"We?" He quickly glanced around the room for another person, but came up empty.

"Yeah," she nodded at the lump hanging half off the chair, asleep. Tonks gave the lump a hard kick in the shoulder and evicted an immediate response.

"What? 'm sorry. I didn't do it. It was Moony." The lump grumbled groggily.

"Sirius, get up! We're free!" Tonks cheered.

The man in the chair sat up quickly, and Ted saw his face.

"You," he growled. A dangerous look crossed the normally smiling face of Ted Tonks.

"Hullo Ted," Sirius said with as much gusto as a half asleep man could. The dopey grin on Sirius' face was wiped off as Ted's fist collided with his jaw. "Ow,"

"Dad," Tonks chided, rolling her eyes at her father.

"What the hell was that for?" Sirius asked, untangling himself from the confines of the chair.

"Making my girls cry," Ted muttered darkly. Then he returned to his normal cheerful self, "So, you're innocent?"

Sirius chuckled merrily at the man's behavior and nodded, "Yes,"

"Good, good. So how've you been?"

Tonks fought the urge to roll her eyes, but was terribly unsuccessful.

The two men chatted for almost two floors when Ted randomly turned towards his daughter, "Dora, why were you two locked in a library?"

"Uh, Sirius, wanna take this one?"

"Mmhmm, you threw me under the bus earlier, so I'll pass,"

Groaning, Tonks regaled their failure of a prank and by the end, the tall man was doubled over, clutching his side. "You two really are a combo aren't you?"

The defeated cousins nodded in agreement as they entered the kitchen where there was sure to be another lecture.

The two women looked up at them with still disapproving looks and raised eyebrows.

"Hello Tonks, Sirius," Arthur smiled kindly at the pair. They shuffled over to the table and the cousins sat opposite each other.

"Evening, Arthur," Sirius nodded to the man.

Tonks grinned at the balding man, "Wotcher, Arthur. Did you hear about what Geoffrey Dunn accidently did today?"

"Oh, yes, didn't he somehow manage to blow up a Daily Prophet stand in the atrium?" Ted asked, settling down on his daughter's right.

"Mmhmm, it was bloody brilliant."

"Nymphadora," Andromeda barked, "Language." She and Molly passed out the potpie quickly before sitting down themselves.

"Sorry, Mum," Tonks ducked her head in embarrassment, giving herself time to morph away the blush.

"Tonksie, you want a beer? I've got this awesome Muggle stuff King dropped off," Sirius whipped out his wand with a waggle of his eyebrows.

"Sure," Tonks nodded, sensing the lecture that was coming and she figured she might as well have some alcohol if she was going to survive it. Andromeda looked rather disapprovingly at her younger cousin as he waved his wand and muttered, 

"Accio beer." As the two bottle whistled through the air and came to a stop in front of the two, Sirius turned towards Andromeda, "What? She's of age both in the Wizarding and the Muggle world." His cousin said nothing, but he could tell she had a lot to say on the matter.

Ted leaned over to his daughter and whispered, "I was drinking beers by the time I was 15," Tonks giggled brightly and the ends of her hair flashed yellow.

Sirius was already digging into his dinner, scarfing it down at an alarming rate. He looked up briefly and saw the looks on both Andromeda and Molly's faces, and decided it was in his better interest to slow down.

"Andy, you left us up there all afternoon. That's breaking your record. I missed lunch," he implored, as if it would make them more sympathetic towards his hurried eating.

"That doesn't give you an excuse to eat like a pig," Andromeda said curtly.

"And I know for a fact that you ate before, Sirius," Molly added.

"I didn't," Tonks said, but soon regretted joining in as the two matriarchs turned on her.

Her mother went first, "Nymphadora, how many plates do you owe them?"

Tonks gulped. That was not a number she wanted to think about. Her mother must've seen the plate by the sink. "Uh, I don't know,"

"'Dromeda, lighten up. They were one with the stupid crest and motto on it. You know what I'm talking about. Well, she's been a real help with getting rid of them." Sirius interjected cheerfully. Andromeda on the other hand, was less than impressed.

"So, are there normally more people here?" Ted asked, breaking the silence. The two Blacks were having what seemed to be a death staring match and were oblivious to the others.

Tonks, eager to prove to her parents that she was useful, nodded and offered her dad an explanation, without, of course, revealing anything she shouldn't.

The meal went fairly undisturbed, the three ministry workers idly chatted about work, the two mothers talked about mothering, and it was peaceful. That is until dessert.

Molly fished out a coconut cake from the pantry and cut each person a small slice. Everyone tucked in cheerfully to his or her piece. They ate in comfortable silence for a few minutes until Molly asked, "Sirius, do you know what time Remus is planning on returning?"

"Uh, probably late morning, early afternoon. Why?"

"I just want to have everything ready for him." Molly said simply, like it was no big deal to help a werewolf.

"You know, Molly, Moony really appreciates all that you do for him. He said he appreciates everything that everyone does for him," He tilted his head slightly to smirk at the pink haired witch parallel to him. This got him a swift kick in the shins. Sirius winced, but not enough for the older people to notice.

The rest of their meal went off without a hitch and soon Sirius found himself giving hugs and being a good little host.

"Andy, you can stop by anytime. Same with you Ted." Sirius gave each a hug as they walked out the front, following the Weasley's footsteps and disappearating.

"I'm so… so… tired." Yawned Tonks, reaching her arms towards the ceiling.

"Yeah, failing miserably at a prank really takes it out of you. I vote tomorrow we regroup and get down to business."

O-o-O-o-O-o-O

_I sincerely apologize for my extremely late update. I won't even give a reason. Just please don't kill me. _

_Use 30 seconds of your time and drop me a note. _

_~clutzie-cutie_

_P.S. How many people sang: "And defeat the Huns!" after that last line? I know I did. _


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi! Quick note: I am now cowriting this with my beta, Caught Ink Handed. This chapter was written by her. Enjoy! **

**Wheezing At Grimauld Place **

**Chapter 6**

Sirius padded down the stairs groggily, ignoring the hushed mutters of the portraits that lined the walls. His normally immaculate hair was sticking every direction and his pajamas were ruffled and a general mess.

The smell of bacon had wafted in to his dreams and yanked him out of them. So naturally, he had to investigate where the smell was coming from, and possibly confiscate some of it. He pulled a hand through his hair, succeeding in only making it messier.

There was the light clinking of silverware and the quiet chatter over breakfast. Sirius was so tired that he didn't even notice how many people really were in the room and he dragged his feet down each step. He was walking slowly and was blissfully unaware of the person hurtling down the stairs until they crashed into him. Both were sent sprawling across the floor. All Sirius saw was a flash of bright green.

"Sorry 'bout that 'Rius," Tonks managed as she sat up, scrubbing her eyes. It had all started when she tripped over that damned troll leg. And then it just all went to hell.

Sirius, his appearance even more disheveled, moved to face his young cousin. "What the hell just happened, Tonks?" He asked.

"I dunno." She shrugged as she stood up. Tonks was also still in her pajamas, yellow and black plaid sweats and a ratty, blue sweatshirt that proclaimed Duke University, and also had not realized the crowd in the kitchen. Tonks stumbled towards the table, managing to just barely stay on her feet, and threw herself into a chair next to Mad-Eye. "Morning, Mad-," she was interrupted by a long yawn, "eye."

Sirius followed her over and sat in the seat across from her. His grey eyes swept across the table, which was laden with a breakfast feast prepared by Molly. He quickly filled a plate with eggs, bacon, potatoes, sweet rolls and a cup of coffee. How she had made all of this food would be a mystery he didn't want to solve.

"Mornin' Sirius, Mornin' Nymphadora," Tonks swung an arm at him and made solid contact. There was a mutter of, "Don't call me, Nymphadora," which he ignored.

"Oh, Sirius, Tonks. You two are awake. I was just about to go and wake you up." Molly bustled over to them.

Around a mouth full of food, Sirius asked, "What time is it?" But it came out more like, "Wha thime in it?"

Molly, mother of 6 boys with black holes for stomachs, was a master of mouth full of food talk. "It's 10 to 8. And don't talk with your mouth full." She added as an after thought.

Sirius gulped down his food and washed it down with a chug of orange juice. "7:50?" Moody nodded, focusing more on the paper then the man in front of him. "That is way too early. Isn't Tonks?"

The green haired witch shrugged, "I've 'ad worse."

"Damn straight," chimed in the ex-auror. His magical eye whizzed across the room at breakneck speeds, taking everyone and everything in.

After engulfing about half of the plate, Sirius began to stare around the room. It seemed like half the order was there. And on a Sunday morning, the shame of it.

Tonks yawned widely again and her hair popped from vivid green to a pale blue.

"Hair," Sirius stated.

"What? Oh," Tonks squeezed her eyes shut and her hair restored to the previous blue. Once her hair was back to normal, she scanned across the room. "Mornin' Emmeline."

"Good morning, Tonks," the older witch replied with a smile, looking over her paper. "How are things with you?"

Tonks gave a noncommittal shrug, "Alright, I suppose. And you?"

"Things in Muggle relations are a little strained right now, but it could be worse." A heavy knocking next to Tonks distracted them both as they both turned to stare at Sirius.

"Don't jinx it," he replied simply, like it was common knowledge.

"Too right you are," chimed in Moody gruffly, his normal eye trained on the group.

A bustling Molly interrupted them with a curt snap of, "None of that at the table. You two eat up, twigs the both of you. It's like you don't eat."

Sirius clasped a hand to his chest in mock horror, "Me? Not eating? I am offended you would ever insinuate something like that. That hurts, Molly. Like a knife in the chest." Sirius demonstrated with his hands wildly, jabbing at his chest maniacally.

"Sirius Black, you settle down this instant. This is a breakfast table, not the time nor the place for your ridiculous theatrics," Molly ordered.

Sirius leaned into his cousin, "She does a damn good impression of your mum." Tonks glanced up to make sure Molly had vacated their general area before saying,

"Nymphadora Tonks, this is a dinner table. You will leave your hair alone, or I swear to Merlin…."

"Hmmm… you do it better then Molly," Sirius waved a hand towards her face, which had unconsciously morphed near to her mother's.

"I could do impressions, like one of those Muggle stand up acts." Tonks commented wryly.

"Oh! Do me! Do me!"

Tonks scrunched up her face for a moment before saying, "Are you serious? No, I'm Sirius."

Emmeline raised an eyebrow, but was smiling nonetheless, "That was uncanny."

Tonks ducked her head in a bow while allowing her features to return to normal. "I try."

"Oi, Molly!" Sirius called. The redhead whipped away from the stove to look at him, "Is Remus back yet?"

"No, I'm afraid not. I need to run back to the Borough for the day. Can I trust you two to take care of him?" Her eyes darted doubtfully between the two cousins.

"Of course we can," Sirius brought his hand up to his chest and was beginning his tirade again, "That hurts, that rea-," His speech was cut off by Tonks throwing a hand across his mouth to silence him. A gurgled response of, "Mggghggpphhhphh."

"Hush."

Sirius' lips moved into a well practiced pout and he folded his arms across his chest in irritation. Once Tonks removed her hand, Sirius glared at her and said, "That wasn't very nice."

"Would you two stop acting like children?" Mad-eye grunted roughly. "I swear the Potter kid and his lot are more mature than you two."

"Be nice, Mad-eye. I have pictures from that one time when you got drunk." Tonks sang cheerfully. "It's nine o'clock on a Saturday. The regular crowd shuffles in. There's an old man sitting next to me makin' love to his bottle and gin…."

"Nymphadora!" thundered Mad-eye, his blue eyes whizzing in its socket until it landed on her. "Enough!"

"Don't call me Nymphadora!" Tonks shot back, rising to her feet, her wand suddenly in hand.

"Then don't act like a child."

"I will after you take that stick out of your arse!" The entire room had fallen silent to watch the two aurors argue.

"Don't test me, Nymphadora," warned the older man, his wand also in hand.

"And don't. Call. Me. Nymphadora." A small amount of red sparks flew out of her wand, matching her violently red hair.

"Expelliarmus!" Both of their wands flew out of their hands and into Emmeline's hands. "Sit down both of you." Tonks dropped down immediately, hanging her head in shame.

Moody growled something about a meeting with Dumbledore he had to get to as he limped towards the door. Emmeline returned his wand to him, not meeting either of his eyes.

Another moment of silence passed in the room before a loud scrapping noise resounded around the room. Tonks stormed past everyone, managing by some miracle not to trip over anything on her way out. She hurried up the stairs, her head down, not looking out for anyone, nor did she notice the other person in the hallway with their head down.

"Oh blimey. I'm so sorry." Tonks blurted out, trying to stay on her feet. "Oh, god, Remus. Are you alright?" She asked, looking at his pain stricken face, "I made it worse didn't I? Merlin, I'm such a prat. Here, let me help you," she reached out a hand, which he gratefully accepted. "I'm really sorry 'bout that."

"No, no, Tonks. It's fine. I've had worse," he let out a slight chuckle, but it was quickly abutted by a rough wince of pain and a cough, "if you don't mind calling Molly, I'd be greatly appreciative."

"What? Oh, yes, o' course." Tonks ran to the top of the stairs and bellowed, "Molly! Remus is back!" The sound of feet moving up the stairs quickly followed her words.

"Good morning, Remus." Molly offered a bright smile to the man. "Come now, I have a room all set up for you. Do you have any bad injuries?"

Remus blinked slowly, assessing the extent of his injuries, "A few of my ribs are at least fractured, and then the usual smattering of bruises."

Tonks rocked back and forth on her heels, unsure of what to do with herself. "You know, I have to go do something, in my room. So I'll be seeing you, Remus, Molly." Feeling a slight blush growing on her cheeks, she scurried up the stairs quickly and disappeared into her room. It was only once her door was closed, did she realize that she had forgotten her wand downstairs. Mad-eye would've killed her for such a dumb mistake.

Resigned to the fact that she was wandless for the time being, she dug out her neglected paperwork and got to work.

She was halfway done with the first one when a quick knock came from outside before the door swung open revealing her cousin.

"Hello my fiery cousin!" Sirius sang as he threw himself down on her bed. "That was quite the performance. Black worthy even." Tonks wrinkled her nose in distaste, "It was worthy of your mother? Is that better?"

"Fine, do you have my wand?"

"Yes," he held it out for her. Tonks reached out to grab it, but Sirius pulled it away at the last moment, "On one condition, you help me pull of another prank."

"Yeah, yeah. Just give me my wand back." Sirius nodded with a grin and handed the wand back to her. Tonks flexed her fingers around the wood, smirking gently. "So what is this brilliant prank you need me for?"

Sirius poked her on the nose and said, "That's what I need you for. I don't quite know yet. So if you'd please follow me to the prank room, I'd be much obliged," he drawled in a weak accent.

"Lead the way," Tonks stood up with a sigh, not disappointed to leave her paperwork behind.

"What were you working on?" Sirius asked as they climbed the stairs.

"Super top secret auror business." She replied without hesitation. Sirius cocked an eyebrow in total disbelief, "Well, if you count a case report on a ring of wizard drug dealers top secret."

"Wizard drug dealers? Sounds exciting,"

"Eh, not really. They were really just 5 old ladies who sat in Muggle pubs selling jinxed drugs to Muggles."

"And not so exciting. Here we are, pranks await."

Tonks rolled her eyes at Sirius' dramatics and followed him into the room. As per usual, the piles of bright orange boxes met them. "So, you have no plan at all? Just rifle through the boxes and find something?"

"Yes…. Is something wrong with that?" Sirius asked defensively, searching the room for an interesting box.

Tonks joined him in his search as she said, "Nope, nothing at all. Just clarifying…"

The cousins searched the boxes, hopefully. A few times they came up with objects, but the other quickly shot them down. "Oh this is cool." Sirius held up a small half circle of what appeared to be putty.

"What does it do?" Tonks asked, setting down the box she had been examining.

Sirius squinted at the piece of paper he was holding, "Uh… it causes people who walk under it to sing for the next 3 minutes."

Tonks weaved her way through the piles of boxes over to Sirius and grabbed the paper from his hand. "This is just a handwritten note. Fred and George must have been developing this before they left for school. I wonder if it works…."

Sirius' mouth twisted into a mischievous smirk, "Well, my dear Tonksie, there is only one way to figure that out."

"And what might that be, 'Rius?" she jabbed back.

"I really thought you were cleverer then that. We shall test it out on the very willing occupants of this house."

Tonks considered this for a moment, "Right, nothing could go wrong with that. How does it even work?" She studied the piece of paper again, scanning for instructions, "Okay, here it is, place putty on door frame, make two 'x' motions underneath the putty."

"So how do you turn it off?"

"It doesn't say. Maybe it just wears off," Tonks replied with a shrug. "What door are we putting this on?"

"We could put it on the kitchen door," suggested Sirius.

"Nah, what if one of us walks through? That would sorta suck."

"Errr…. What about the front door?"

"That might work."

"Tonks! Sirius!" A voice echoed down the stairs. The voice distinctly belonged to Molly Weasley, and it sounded like she had chores. "Would you two come up here?"

Both groaned quietly, but consented nonetheless. They trudged upstairs, both pouting slightly.

"Yes, Molly?" Sirius asked, entering Remus' room, where Molly currently was patching up Remus' wounds. A large bruise colored his upper abdomen.

"Sirius, Tonks, would you two mind dusting the upper floors?"

The pair winced slightly. "This is still from last night, right?" moaned Sirius, "'Cause we apologized and everything."

Molly tactfully ignored Sirius' comment, and instead patted Remus gently on the shoulder. "There you go Remus, that should sped along the healing process. Just take it easy." She walked towards the door and paused at the others, "You two… behave yourself. No more causing destruction to the house." Then, without another word, she stalked out of the room, already yelling for someone else to come and help her.

"How you feeling, mate?" Sirius questioned, settling in the office chair opposite Sirius.

Remus shrugged slightly as he pulled his shirt on. Tonks tried to keep her eyes anywhere in the room, but Remus. "I'll be fine, just a few scratches and bruises."

Sirius considered this for a moment before clapping his hands together, "Well, we have another prank."

"I heard your last one went well," he commented drily.

'That would be an understatement," Tonks muttered under her breath.

Sirius pouted and snapped at Tonks, "Stop your mumblings. It's just as much your fault as it is mine." Tonks rolled her eyes, but remained quiet, "This little beauty," Sirius revealed the small putty with a flourish, "will cause those who walk underneath to sing for the next few minutes." He declared proudly.

"And where do you want to put this?" Remus asked with a slight sigh.

"The front door, where else," Sirius stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "But we have cleaning to do, so we must get on that at once." He explained with mock excitement. He swiped a finger across the bedside table and examined his finger carefully, "Merlin's pant's! This place is dusty."

"Sirius, mate, I think that's why Molly asked you to clean it." Remus clapped a hand on the darker haired man's shoulder.

Sirius' eyes widened comically as he said, "Brilliant deduction, my dear Lupin. But first we must set up this little guy."

"No, first, you two have to dust. Once everything is dusted, then you can do your little prank."

"You should be ashamed of yourself. And you call yourself a marauder. Cleaning before pranking? That's absurd." Sirius shook his head pityingly.

"I think I've served my time. I spent an afternoon, locked in a library, with this joker." Tonks moaned, feeling rather sorry for herself. "Sirius, where are the cleaning supplies?"

"Hell if I know. Why don't we ask Kreacher to do it?" Sirius snapped his fingers winningly and called, "Oh, Krrreeaaacher!" There was a faint pop, followed by some mutterings and the ancient elf glared up at them.

"Mistress's traitorous son calls. Oooo, what does he want? What does he want indeed?"

"Kreacher, dust the upper floors please." Ordered Sirius. The elf stared back at him with blank eyes filled with distaste.

"He thinks he can tell Kreacher what to do. No, no, no. Kreacher is only loyal to the Black family."

"Kreacher, if do not do as I say…I'll…I'll give you clothes."

Kreacher seemed to curl inward at the idea, "Send Kreacher away from Mistress? No, never."

"So you'll do it?" Tonks asked to clarify, taking her chances with the grouchy elf.

"The half blood speaks to Kreacher. She shares mistress's blood. But what would the mistress think? Blasted off the tapestry, the both of them…."

There was a collective eye roll between the humans, "Kreacher," Sirius snapped, "go, and dust. And if I so much as find one speck of dirt, I will burn all of the family pictures." Then as an afterthought to Remus and Tonks, he added, "It's not like I want them around anyway. Damn creepy all of them. There is a reason it's illegal to marry your relatives," A massive shudder racked through his body and his face scrunched up in distaste.

"Can we go down and grab a bite to eat? I didn't get to finish breakfast." Tonks asked after her stomach grumbled in protest.

"I'm quite hungry as well," agreed Lupin. The moon always made him feel like he could eat a cow (if he didn't as a wolf). "But, why didn't you finish breakfast?" Lupin held the door open for the other two and Sirius began the descent to the kitchen.

"Well, you see my dear Moony, it appears that Tonks here has a bit of a touchy spot when it comes to her name. And our lovely mate, Mad-eye, poked at it. Shall we say sparks flew, eh, Nymphie?" He glanced back to wink at his fuming cousin.

"I am not above hexing you, Sirius." She snapped back. There was also a low mutter of, "Bloody git."

"You and Mad-eye got in a fight?" Lupin asked, normally the teacher and her protégée got on so well.

"He was acting like a prat again." She said nonchalantly, as if threatening one of the most terrifying men in the country was a normal occurrence.

"There aren't many people who would do that." Lupin's voice conveyed a tone of amazement, causing a slight blush to taint her cheeks until she morphed them away.

They passed by Tonks' room and Sirius paused, "Tonks, you wanna change?"

"What's wrong with- ah," she glanced down at her horrendous pajama pants, "I'll go change. Give me a sec." She reappeared minutes later in a pair of shredded jeans and a large flannel shirt, two sizes too big.

"Whose shirt is that? Your dad's?" Sirius questioned as he took in her appearance.

"Nah, it might be Charlie's." Tonks said with a shrug, "I've had it since 6th year at least. A bunch of our friends went camping in some forest and I fell down a mud pit. Charlie gave me one of his extra shirts and I just never got around to returning it." She explained at the two curious looks she received.

The trio had almost made it down to the kitchen when Molly burst out of one of the rooms. "What are you two doing?" she demanded, glaring at Sirius and Tonks. "You should be dusting."

"We were… uh… you know…." Tonks stuttered, cringing slightly under the matriarch glare.

"I'm very hungry and they were helping me get something to eat. I hope that's alright, Molly." Lupin intervened, turning up the charm with a small smile.

Molly's face instantly changed from one of irritation to one of understanding, "Of course, of course. That's just fine, Remus, dear. But, you two, it better be spotless by the time you're done." She waggled a finger threateningly at the pair who both gulped nervously. There was nothing like Molly Weasley scorned. "Now go along and get your food."

"Nice save, Moony," Sirius jabbed an elbow Lupin's way in thanks. The point of it caught one of the werewolf's bruises.

"Padfoot. Ow." He grunted, now holding a hand over the aggravated area. With the smoothness of a well-practiced motion, Lupin slapped the back of Sirius' head.

"What have we said about the hair?" Sirius whined, running a hand over the ruffled area.

Tonks moved in closer to Sirius and whispered, "I think there's a bald spot."

Sirius' eyes grew astronomically large and he spluttered out, "Wha? Where?" He raced down the stairs, searching for a mirror. Sirius paused at a landing and moved a hand carefully down the back of his head. "Tonks, you little…. I'm gonna get you." He growled and lunged at her. Tonks, tactfully, side stepped behind Lupin. This would've been brilliant, had she not hooked his foot, causing him to fall on top of her.

A moment of pure awkwardness passed between the two, until Sirius let out a barking laugh. He offered a hand to both of them and yanked them up. "That was bloody brilliant." He laughed, the sound bouncing off the tall ceiling.

Tonks glowered at him sourly while Lupin's cheeks flushed red.

"Can we just go get food?" snapped Tonks, crossing her arms against her chest.

Both men nodded, one blushing, then other chuckling to himself. They followed the green haired witch down the stairs silently, casting each other strange looks. Their journey to the kitchen was going well until they passed the troll leg.

"Damnit!" cried Tonks, clutching her throbbing foot. By some godsend miracle, the frightening portrait of Walburga Black did not raise from her slumber. A particularly old looking man shot pointed glares their way while muttering under his breath.

"Careful there, Tonks," Sirius teased, earning him an eye roll from the witch.

Once they were safely in the kitchen, all three slumped down in chairs. Remus waved his wand lazily and plates of food flew towards them. They each filled a plate with the still delicious left overs from Molly's monstrous breakfast.

A discarded paper lay underneath a plate and Lupin fished it out carefully. After scanning it quickly, he let out a sharp snorting noise, which caused his companions to look up from their food.

"Something wrong, Moony?"

"In a manner of speaking," he examined the paper more closely and let out another harsh laugh.

"Okay then, speak in riddles, why don't you?" Tonks commented drily, picking at a piece of toast in front of her.

"Has either of you two heard anything about this?"

Tonks and Sirius shared an exasperated look before Sirius said, "Well, you know, I might have heard of it while I was gallivanting around _in public_," Sirius' voice was practically oozing with sarcasm as he glared irritably at his oldest friend.

Lupin responded with an equally irritable gaze of his own, "Oh, shut it, Sirius. No, this thing with Umbridge becoming high inquisitor of Hogwarts."

Tonks nearly spat the mouthful of coffee she had been swallowing all over Remus and his paper. But she choked it down and said, "That old toad? The one who looks like a piece of lard wrapped in pink? She's a total cow. Not one of my bigger fans."

"Oh, I remember her. She was a seventh year when we were first years!" Sirius waved a hand maniacally, obviously proud of himself.

"Yes, yes. She also has something against all half-breeds, including werewolves. She passed a piece of legislation that has made it very challenging for werewolves to get jobs." Remus' eyes had an almost wolfish, feral glint to them as he recalled the woman's hard line on werewolves. "But how is she in charge of Hogwarts? Has Fudge really stooped that low?"

"He's frightened of Dumbledore. He thinks that Professor Dumbledore is going to try and take over the ministry." Tonks explain with a heavy sigh, "It's ridiculous. The security measures he's taking are ridiculous. And some how he's more focused on weeding out spies for Dumbledore, than Death Eaters."

"You'll do well to tread carefully, then," Remus asked, his blue eyes meeting her dark ones in a calm request.

"I generally try, but my feet don't always seem to agree." She replied with an easy smirk, so similar, yet different from her older cousin. "This is too depressing for breakfast. I don't have work today, so I don't want to be depressed. I already have to clean," she gave a dramatic shudder before continuing, "And that's traumatizing enough."

"You know, I sometimes find cleaning to be rather cathartic." Remus suddenly found himself on the receiving end of two nearly identical stares.

Then Sirius burst into a loud barking laugh, "You're joking, right? Moony, that's brilliant."

Remus opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the loud stomping of feet. Molly burst through the door, her eyes blazing bloody murder. "You two," she sneered at the two Black cousins.

"Yes, Mrs. Weasley?" Tonks asked innocently, smiling broadly at the redhead.

"You two," she began again, "are supposed to be dusting."

Sirius sat up a bit, grinning lazily, "Well, Molly, you did say we could get something to eat."

"But I did not say you could slack off for 20 minutes and have your house elf dust for you." With a quick spin of her heel, she faced Remus, "And you, I expected better from you, Remus Lupin. You let these two," Molly jerked an angry finger towards the pair, "behave like this. You knew they were slacking off."

"Molly, is the upstairs dusted?" Sirius asked, leaning back in his chair until the front legs were off the ground.

"Yes, but-"

Tonks cut in, "Then what's the problem? Your upstairs is dusted. Sirius and I have eaten. Remus… is happy, I'm sure. Everyone's happy. It's a win-win." Sirius gave her a nod and thumbs up from behind Molly.

"Well, since you and Sirius are so content, I'm sure you three won't mind mucking out the foyer. It's gotten absolutely filthy in the past couple of weeks. You don't have any objection, do you Nymphadora?"

Tonks swallowed down her usual retort of, "Don't call me Nymphadora," figuring it would be better not to anger the Weasley matriarch. "Uh, no…. That's no problem. We'll get right on that. Won't we, Sirius, Remus?" she cast them both with threatening glares, causing the two men her senior to cower slightly and nod eagerly.

"Of course, Molly, consider it done," Remus added softly, managing to calm Molly's temper.

"I'll hold you three to it," she threatened, "Now, you need to dust everything, fix everything that's out of place, sweep, mop, and dry the floor." Molly emphasized each task carefully as she scribbled them on a piece of paper. Once each task was done, she whipped out her wand and tapped it to the parchment. It glowed a pale red before returning to its usual pale parchmenty state. "And if you don't personally do one of these things, or skip one, not only will I be made aware, but this piece of parchment will follow you around and bug you until you do."

Remus graciously accepted the parchment from the frazzled looking witch. "We will make sure everything is done to your standards."

"Thank you, Remus dear." Molly patted his hand affectionately before bustling back up the stairs.

Sirius was boasting what could only be defined as a shit-eating grin. "The prank gods have smiled upon us," he declared proudly. "Now let's get to cleaning," Sirius made ridiculous air quotes around the word, "cleaning" as he led the charge upstairs.

"Either of you two know any household spells?" Tonks asked conversationally as they entered the hallway. Sirius shook his head, much like a dog trying to rid itself of water. Remus gave a limp shrug, which conveyed no meaning. "That's what mums are for," she insisted.

"So, how are we going to do this?" Sirius whined.

"We could just do it the Muggle way," suggested Remus halfheartedly. Sirius and Tonks had identical looks of pain. "It's not that bad. It's how my mother made me do it. Plus, there isn't any option." He added more forcefully.

"Fine," groaned Sirius, "I will clean after we put this up. I've got to have some sort of motivation."

"Okay, Tonks and you can set this up. I'll go ask Molly for the supplies, she ought to have some," commanded Remus, taking charge of the situation.

"Aye, aye, Cap'n," Tonks gave him a lazy salute accompanied by a wry smirk. Remus rolled his eyes at her behavior, but remained quiet. He trudged up the stairs.

"Tonksie," began Sirius.

"Don't call me Tonksie, it makes it sound like I'm four or something."

"You prefer Nymphadora?" Sirius suggested, eyebrows jumping wildly.

The only response Tonks deemed necessary was a sharp glare in her cousin's direction. "Shut it. Now let's get this thing up before people start coming and going."

Sirius dug the putty out of his pocket, a few stray pieces of lint clinging to it.

"Here it is," he presented it proudly. He sidled over to the doorframe, and stretched up on his toes to press it the underside of the door. Once it was stuck, the material matched the dirty color of the wood. "Awesome." He hissed under his breath. Whipping out his wand with a slight whistling noise, Sirius marked the X carefully.

"Hopefully this actually works," Tonks muttered.

"You doubt wounds me," shot back Sirius.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah."

A thud at the bottom of the stairs caused the two cousins to jump slightly before whirling around. "Bloody hell, Moony, careful!" Sirius yelled up the stairs.

"Sorry!" Remus yelled back, leaning over a balcony. Remus made his way down the stairs, weary of his injuries, careful to avoid the loose floorboard at the top of the stairs. "Is your singing putty all set up?"

"Yep," sang Sirius, "Now all we have to do is wait and watch."

"No, actually, we have to clean and watch. Now c'mon." Remus glanced at the list, scanning for their first task. "Dust. The dusting supplies are the spray and rag. You have to move whatever's on the table before you can dust it."

Sirius and Tonks nodded dutifully, collecting the supplies and getting to work. Remus limped over to the stairs, the pain spreading over his body once again. "Moony, no slacking off," jibed Sirius, mock glaring at his old friend.

"Moon. Sore," he managed between sharp breaths, his ribs screaming protest.

"Oh, 'course. Sorry, mate." Sirius returned to the small table. A vile looking vase lay on top, a couple wilted roses completing the picture. Sirius gingerly took the vase off the table and set it on the ground behind him. With a quick wave of his wand, the ancient flowers vanished into thin air, only leaving their musty smell behind. Carefully, he sprayed the bottle and nearly jumped a foot when a strong smelling white foam shot out of it.

Tonks laughed loudly at Sirius' shocked expression, and called, "I think you wipe it now, Paddy!"

"Don't call me Paddy!" he barked indignantly, "If you don't call me Paddy, I won't call you Tonksie,"

"Fine, fine," she muttered as she sauntered past. Unaware of the vase on the ground, her foot swung into it and the vase clattered across the floor with a shattering noise. "Damn it."

"Smooth, Tonks, real smooth." Sirius scoffed, still attempting to wipe the small table.

"I'm sorry, Sirius, it was an accident."

"It's fine, Tonks, it was ugly." Sirius waved a dismissive hand. Really, the thing was hideous.

Tonks, still grumbling to herself, crouched down next to the fatal troll leg and set to work on it.

Remus sat, slumped against the staircase, allowing his tense and sore muscles to relax. At some point he drifted off in to oblivion.

Tonks and Sirius were in the process of organizing the various objects in the entry way when the door opened quietly. Bill Weasley grinned at them in greeting.

"Wotcher Bill!" Tonks waved a hand, still holding the cloth, which was covered in grime. "How's it going over at Gringotts?"

"Noon, Tonks, Sirius!" He greeted, but instead of speaking the words, they came out in a low singing voice. "What the bloody hell?" he exclaimed, sounding much like his younger brother, Ron.

"Something wrong, Bill? You're singing," Tonks pointed out innocently.

He glared at the doorframe. "Must be some weird thing about this house." He grunted irritably, but in a strange tune. "Did Mum put you uuuuuuppppp," he artfully stretched the note out, but his eyes widened in embarrassment, "to this?" His voice dropped extremely low at the last word. Tonks couldn't contain her laughter any longer and was quickly clutching her side in the pain from laughter.

"That's bloody brilliant, Bill. You should go into music or something," she complimented lightly.

"You already have hair like one of those bands, Tonksie, here, listens to," finished Sirius.

After nailing the two with a harsh glare, he asked/ sang, "Where's my Mum?"

"Upstairs somewhere," managed Sirius, inhaling deeply to control himself. Bill gave them one last eye roll before bounding up the stairs. "Best prank ever."

"Too bad Remus was asleep for that," commented Tonks, nodding towards the sleeping man. Remus' lips turned up in a wolfish grin.

"I heard the whole thing," claimed Remus, opening his eyes. "Looks very nice." He nodded towards their work. "Are you almost done with the dusting?"

"Yep," Tonks exclaimed brightly, grinning broadly at Remus. "We were just about to start the sweeping. How are you feeling?"

"That little bit of rest went a long way."

"If you two are done flirting, I have things I'd rather do than clean. So, get sweeping cuz," Sirius pushed a broom in her direction. Tonks managed to hang to it by the tips of her fingers. Sirius grabbed a broom of his own and set to work. Remus settled back into the small nook of the stairs, his aching muscles easing up.

Sirius whistled haplessly out of tune as he swept the cobwebs out of the corner. The doorbell's ring drowned out his sad little tune. The doorbell in turn was drowned out by, "FILTH! FILTH IN MY HOUSE! TRAITORS, MUDBLOOD AND HALFBREEDS!" All three winced, and Remus sat up suddenly in shock.

"Damn doorbell," Sirius cursed under his breath. He and Tonks hurried to pull the curtains over the screaming woman as she yelled obscenities at them. Remus flicked his wand towards the door and the locks clicked, causing the door to fly open. A sheepish looking Mundungus Fletcher stood in the door. Mundungus walked in, his coat drooping down with some unseen weight. "Hey 'Dung,"

"Sirius," sang the trader, but he didn't notice the change in his voice.

"Whatcha got there?" Sirius asked, gesturing towards his coat.

"Don't tell anyone, but I nicked a couple pounds of dragon's livers." He whisper sang, quite loudly, and conspiratorially. " Don't want to get in trouble with the ministry!" That last syllable rose astronomically, to an entirely new level none of them thought he could reach.

Tonks rolled her eyes and interrupted the man; "You realize I'm an auror, right?"

"What?" Dung spluttered, his eyes bulging. "Oh, yes, please don't tell on me, Miss Nymphadora," he pleaded.

Remus and Sirius shared a typical marauder like grin as Tonks' eyebrows rose nearly to her hairline, "Never call me Nymphadora again, and I'll keep quiet."

"O'course, whatever you want. I'll even give you a discount on some real quality poisons,"

Tonks' eyebrows rose, if possible even, higher, "Yeah, I'll pass on that. You know, auror, and all."

Mundungus bobbed his head nervously, "Right, sorry, ma'am." He nodded once more, and then an expression of realization dawned upon them, "Why am I singin'?"

"Door's malfunctioning," Sirius explained simply, biting down on the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from cracking up.

"Oh, of course." Mundungus muttered before disappearing into a back room.

"Where'd he go?" Tonks asked, leaning into the hallway to look.

"I told him he could have a closet to store his goods, don't tell Molly, she'll have my head," Sirius said, resuming his sweeping. Then randomly he stopped, and turned his head skyward, "Prank gods, if you have any heart at all, let Snivellous walk through that door." His companions looked at him as if he had truly lost his mind. "What?"

There were two quiet murmurs of, "Nothing," from the others.

Sirius resumed his out of tune whistling, not really understanding how bad he was at it.

"Elphias, I tell you, that would never work. There simply isn't a need for magical top hats." Daedalus Diggle's voice echoed down the stairs as he and Elphias walked down.

"Are you sure? I think there are many people who would like it." The two men nodded towards the trio before continuing out the door.

Sirius stifled a laugh until they had closed the door behind him. "I forgot people would be go out as well as coming in. This is brilliant."

Tonks and Remus simultaneously rolled their eyes at his manic grin.

By 2:30, Tonks and Sirius were in the process of mopping the floors. The front door slammed open and Mad-Eye clunked in, his magical eye whizzing. "Wotcher, Mad-Eye! Sorry I yelled at you," she apologized quickly surprising all in the room. Nymphadora Tonks giving in so easily was not a sight often seen.

"Likewise," grunted Mad-Eye. As soon as he spoke, his eyes narrowed accusatorially at Sirius and Tonks, who were both innocently mopping, but not really moving anywhere. "What did you do, Nymphadora?" He jabbed a finger in Tonks' direction.

"I didn't do anything, Mad-Eye." Tonks was extremely grateful for her morphing abilities in that moment as her cheeks began to flush. "We don't know what's going on with the door. Remus, here," she jerked a finger in the lounging man's direction, "Thinks it some sort of defensive spell that malfunctioned. And don't call me Nymphadora!"

Mad-Eye grunted irritably before asking, "Where's Arthur?"

"He should be upstairs, in the drawing room, Alastor," Remus supplied helpfully. Mad-Eye limped up the stairs, the crack of his foot snapping in the air.

Tonks and Sirius shared one quick glance before bursting into fits of laughter. Remus quickly joined them, clutching his wheezing side. "That's bloody brilliant. Better then Snape. Priceless." Sirius gasped.

They all fell silent as Moody sang down the stairs, "Nymphadora, you're taking the shift tonight. Don't fall asleep again."

Tonks groaned before hollering back up, "Okay, Mad-Eye. I love your singing voice." They could all hear the grunts and mumbles of the aged auror from their position at the bottom of the stairs. Tonks slumped down next to Remus, feeling generally tired. "Sirius, can I take a break? You've been mopping the same spot of floor for at least 20 minutes."

"Sure, sure," Sirius grinned to himself at his best friend and cousin's closeness. "Remus, have you heard anything from Harry recently?"

"No, I haven't. Have you?" Remus asked, feeling concerned at the look on Sirius' face.

"No, that's what's worrying."

"He's probably acting like James, not wanting to ask for help."

"Do you remember that one time when James got his foot stuck in the staircase and he stayed there all night under the cloak because he didn't want to ask anyone who walked by?" Sirius asked, his grey eyes reminiscent.

Remus laughed softly at the memory, "Didn't Lily run into him, while he was under the cloak, and then she helped him get his foot out?"

"I forgot about that," While Sirius worked and talked similtaneuosly, he managed to cover the entire floor in water. "Moony, where are towels? I need to dry the floor."

"Sirius, you just put water on the floor. You need to put soap in the bucket and then put it on the floor."

Sirius groaned and moaned loudly as he poured some of the cleaning solution into the bucket. But as he plunged the mop into the bucket, a wry smile grew on his lips. "_Ad vitam_," The mop began plunging itself in and then pulling out. It started yanking across the floor and spreading the soap. "And another," He pointed his wand at the mop Tonks had abandoned. He glanced at the other two. Tonks was relaxed against Remus' chest, her eyes closed. Remus' eyes were also closed. "I'm going to go and have a sandwich."

Sirius returned, not 5 minutes later, and found an absolute disaster. Soap bubbles were climbing the walls, and the mops would occasionally pop up above the line of bubbles.

"Moony!" He bellowed, dropping the sandwich and plate with a crash. "Moony! Moony! MOOOOONNNNNNYYYYY!"

The man in question jerked awake, sending Tonks flying into the bubbles. Tonks' green head popped up spluttering. "Sirius, what the hell happened?"

"Tell you later, we need to clean this up…. Oh sweet Merlin, Molly's gonna kill us. C'mon, vanishing spells." All three set to work on making the foamy water vanish. Soon, they were only left with a few stray bubbles and sopping wet walls. "What about the walls?"

"Drying spell." Remus flicked his wand through the air and sent a jet of hot air down the hallway. Sirius did the same for the entryway.

"Geez, Sirius, who'd you think you are, Mickey Mouse?" Tonks asked, rolling her eyes.

Remus let out a small laugh, but Sirius, being a pureblood, had no clue what she meant, "Mickey Mouse?"

"Muggle cartoon character," she explained, tucking her wand back into her pocket. "I'll see if my dad still has the tape and we can watch it."

"Oh, wow, you three did an amazing job!" announced Molly as she came down the stairs, a basket of laundry resting on her hip. "This is spotless. I don't think the floors have been this clean in ages. Good job. And with Muggle cleaning supplies." She complimented in awe. "But did you three do something to the door?" She questioned, her eyes suddenly narrowing.

"No, Molly, I think it was an old defensive spell that has not aged well, and then somehow got reactivated." Remus explained quickly, recycling Tonks' excuse from earlier.

"Alright then, you three go relax for a bit. I'll have dinner ready in a couple hours."

"Actually, Molly, I need to head back to my flat, so I'll just grab a bite from the café beneath my flat. I've got guard duty as well, so it'll be easier. But thanks for the offer," Tonks smiled sweetly at the older woman.

"Okay, dear. Are you sure? I could whip you up something quickly." Molly offered.

"No, no, it's fine."

"Okay, Tonks, I'll see you tomorrow," Molly trotted down the hall and into the back yard to hang her wet laundry.

"_Accio coat_," Tonks called. There was a slight rustling upstairs, and Tonks' dark leather jacket came hurtling down the stairs. She managed to catch it deftly in one hand and slipped it on, "I'll be seeing you," She nabbed Sirius in a hug, which he returned with ease, and then hugged Remus so quickly he just stood there, unsure of how to respond. "_Protego_," She muttered as she passed under the doorframe, "Great, protego works against this," she informed them cheerfully before disappearing behind the closed door.

"Doing alright there, Moony? Little love struck? I can tell you like my little cousin." Sirius waggled his eyebrows ridiculously in Remus' direction.

"No, I don't,"

"Oh, you so do."

Remus sighed heavily, "Even if I did, I wouldn't act upon those feelings. Tonks deserved someone young and whole, someone who's not a werewolf. I'm too old, too poor and too dangerous," he said those last words with the tone of an old mantra.

"Alright, mate, whatever floats your broomstick," shrugged Sirius. Really, thought Sirius, the man was being ridiculous.

* * *

><p><strong>Hi! I'm Caught Ink Handed! I am clutzie-cutie's beta, and now her co-author. I'm really excited about this story. I have never written Harry Potter before, but I have written for a couple other fandoms. I hope I got everyone in character. <strong>

**Love, CIH**

**So... please leave a review. It's our mutual birthday and leaving a review would be a brilliant present. **

**clutzie-cutie & Caught Ink Handed**


	7. IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE

**Hello all! **

**I have gotten little to no response on this story. If people don't want to read it, then I don't really feel motivated to write it. I'm not begging for reviews. I'm just trying to gage the response on this story. **

**All of your thoughts would be greatly appreciated. **

**clutzie-cutie**


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